Chester County’s Indian Hannah is commonly known as the last Lenni-Lenape Indian in the county. But was she? Just ask artist Adrian Martinez.
BILL RETTEW JR. – DIGITAL FIRST MEDIA

As a student at West Chester East, I felt like no two classes were more diverse than history and art.

I’ve learned a few things in the 38 years since then. Now I know that many subjects taught in school, Geometry, Biology, Art and Music, English and Phys Ed, have much more in common than they differ.

Artist Adrian Martinez verifies my new awareness, by bringing together art, history and the environment in a mixed media show at the Chester County Historical Society.

“Adrian Martinez presents the Visionary World of Humphry Marshall,” is a one-of-a-kind, a unique show, and is now on display through December.

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Martinez more eloquently refers to the show when he asks us to “watch history through the eyes of an artist.”

On display are 12 huge 4 by 5.5-foot oil paintings and dozens of three-dimensional objects. Everything is linked to Marshall and the show covers a time period from 1750-1800.

Martinez cites N.C. Wyeth as an influence and you can see many connections to the great illustrator in much of Martinez’s work.

There are paintings of Lewis and Clark, Chester County’s Indian Hannah, Mason and Dixon and a microscope gifted to Marshall by Benjamin Franklin.

Why spend five years painting Marshall’s life?, I asked Martinez.

“He wakes up at 50-something and all of a sudden he’s not a British subject – he’s an American and what does that mean?”

During the 18th Century there were no scientists, but rather “curious gentlemen.”

Through the Franklin microscope, Marshall viewed fish scales, a fly eye, a moth wing and a strand of brown hair that might have belonged to that curious gentleman.

Marshall also looked upward to the skies with a Franklin telescope.

“For the first time, he can see the infinite world,” Martinez said. “With the telescope, his world opened out into the infinite large and his world focused into the infinite small with the microscope.”

What Marshall saw was startling.

“He fell down the rabbit hole,” Martinez said.

“There were certain contradictions that will never be resolved,” Martinez said. “An endless attempt to resolve them, that’s what an American is – he’s a perfect avatar of us – hugely successful and progressive.”

As a Quaker, Marshall studied Botany. He often asked traveling companions to bring him seeds and fossils from all corners of the world.

“This is edgy behavior, you’re slightly suspect,” Martinez said.

As an American, Marshall was heavily involved in community service. He built bridges and repaired roads.

“Community service was an obligation,” Martinez said. “It was expected.”

Martinez claims that he knows more about the life of Marshall than anyone else, which he said is a shame. He hopes that his art will light a spark for young historians to further examine the life of Marshall.

The artist said he could have proceeded in several directions with the paintings. There are none of Washington, Jefferson or Franklin in the collection.

Martinez separates fact from fiction. He debunks commonly held facts. He took poetic license with the paintings.

The artist talked about the Washington cherry tree myth.

“The facts don’t change but the meaning of story changes,” he said with a smile. “Every generation needs its own stories.”

One of the most striking paintings at the historical society depicts Indian Hannah, who is generally recognized as the last living Lenni-Lenape Indian in the county.

Martinez said that the dignified, queen-like Indian was a “vulnerable woman who had a tragic end.”

She was declared indigent and died in the poor house. But she was not the last living Lenape in the county and her death sparked major changes.

A treaty had been struck between William Penn and the Lenni-Lenape; while there was still a single Lenni-Lenape living on the land in the county, the Indian lifestyle would remain.

As long as the Lenape were making seasonal rounds, and leading a semi-nomadic life, that was their right until the last Lenape left, Martinez said.

The painting depicts an older Hannah and a fallen hemlock tree, with branches signifying the children Hannah realizes will never return.

Martinez painted a possible fantasy moment when Marshall was working as a stone mason at Martin’s Tavern in Marshallton and Mason and Dixon stopped by.

The traveling line-drawers carried the latest technology, which must have fascinated Marshall, along with servants and bodyguards for a very dangerous job.

Martinez said that during the 18th Century large groups did not often gather and that the 50-member party must have been “unbelievable and eye-popping”

Indian Hanna is listed in payroll records as a kitchen maid.

As one of the 12 oils, the historic Downingtown Log House is part of a painting going back to 1776 in “Downings’ Town”

Martinez has worked as an exhibit designer of internationally significant shows. He pulled together the largest collection of Fabergé Eggs ever for an exhibit and worked with Old Masters paintings in Texas. Now he works primarily as a full-time artist.

“I’m compelled to act,” the candidate on the November ballot for Downingtown mayor said. “What is the meaning of art for me? My agenda is clear and singular. Art is not a luxury, it’s a necessity.”

Martinez said his profession is to remember, and the result is one-of-a-kind art.

“You are telling a story, you’re making meaning and meaning is creative,” he said, “and it’s being created by a professional remember-er who just happens to do it with paints.”

The Chester County Historical Society and library is located at 225 N. High St., West Chester. For more information call 610-692-4800 or go to www.chestercohistorical.org The galleries are open Tuesday-Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Bill Rettew Jr. is a weekly columnist and Chester County native. He most enjoys the row of 19 grandfather, or tall clocks, at the historical society. You can read the first five chapters of his travel novel, “Chasing the American Dream,” for free at Amazon. He can be contacted at brettew@dailylocal.com